


Campfire Stories

by jabedalien



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: A little bit scary, Camping, Coming Untouched, Dry Humping, Gen, M/M, Making Out, Porn With Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:21:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26395570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jabedalien/pseuds/jabedalien
Summary: The group has their wilderness survival class final: a night camping out in the woods.
Relationships: Abed Nadir/Jeff Winger, Shirley Bennett & Britta Perry, Troy Barnes & Annie Edison
Comments: 18
Kudos: 75





	Campfire Stories

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys!! this is jeff/abed focused of course as thats the only life i know. but it's definitely more of a gen fic than most of my other stuff. the other two pairs, troy and annie/ britta and shirley have their own storylines as well!

_-12:00pm, on a Friday-_

“Some blow off class this ended up being.” Jeff muttered.

“The study group is sitting in the backseat of a yellow school bus, driving through the mountains towards their wilderness survival class final. Little do they know, tonight, out in the woods, with the elusive Colorado Berry Man hiding behind the trees, would prove to be the most terrifying of their lives.”

“Abed? Please promise me you will not narrate us this entire time.” Jeff added.

“Jeff, stop being a buzzkill. This is gonna be fun!” Britta said back. “Being one with nature, surviving like people did in the olden days—”

Troy reached into the pocket of her backpack and pulled out a glass pipe, waving it around to the rest of the group. “I’m sure everyone had one of these back then.” He teased.

“Brit-ta!” Shirley scolded. “I can’t believe you were going to do drugs during our final when you _know_ we’re getting graded together!”

“Final is a strong word. They’re just dumping us in the woods.” Britta shrugged. “And how am I supposed to be one with nature without smoking trees?”

Shirley scoffed.

“At least Abed and I are gonna kick all your asses at this.” Jeff said.

Abed smirked and shot him finger guns. “I watched a lot of castaway movies to prepare for this. But I don’t think those are particularly accurate.”

“Either way, it’s not a competition.” Annie protested. “If it was, Troy and I would _definitely_ win.”  
Troy eagerly high fives her from across the aisle.

“One night out in the woods.” Professor Whitman bellowed, standing at the front of the bus to address the class. “This time is going to change your lives forever.” He told them, waving his arms in front of his face dramatically. The class paid him very little mind.

“Each pair will get a campsite to themselves. Set it up, start your fire, cook your meals, and probably huddle for warmth. Come meet back here in 24 hours, or fail my class and get left in the mountains until hikers discover your body. To get an A, you’ll need the marker from your campsite, and three discoveries.”

“This is starting to seem a little intense.” Shirley said, rolling her eyes.

Jeff nodded in agreement. “What constitutes a _discovery_?”

Britta reached over and hit him on the arm. “This isn’t a joke Jeffrey, wilderness survival is life or death.” Abed nodded in agreement, and Jeff groaned.

The bus rolled to a stop and the partners lined up in the clearing outside.

“Jeff Winger and Abed Nadir. Your site is half a mile to the west.” Professor Whitman said, handing them a bag with their tent and poles.

“Wait a minute, didn’t Pierce take this class too?” Annie asked, peeking out from behind them.

“Pierce has...” Professor Whitman checked his notes. “died of influenza.”

“Cool cool cool,” Abed said, clearly unfazed, slinging his pack over his shoulder. “let’s go, Jeff.”

Jeff shrugged as Abed checked their compass and they walked off into the woods.

“Troy Barnes and Annie Edison.”

They both stepped up, matching smiles on their faces.

“You’ll be out west as well, take a left at the creek and follow that upstream for a quarter of a mile. And as you two know, official Greendale policy is no fornication on any school trip within state borders. But I’ll allow anything if it’s in the name of love.” Professor Whitman winked.

“Thanks but I uh, don’t think you have to worry about us.” Troy laughed.

“Very well.” Professor Whitman said, but he didn’t look like he believed Troy. “Good luck finding your site.”

“I don’t need luck.” Annie said, proudly holding up a notebook. “I copied the entire textbook into here.”

Troy groaned and pulled her towards the trees.

“Shirley Bennett and Britta Perry.”

“You ladies are out to the east, there’s another small clearing that way.”

Shirley and Britta headed off in the opposite direction.

_-Jeff and Abed-_

As soon as they were out of view of the clearing, Abed was turning around and pushing Jeff against a tree, the tent poles poking into his back.

“Abed–”

“Shh.” Abed whispered, silencing Jeff with a quick kiss. “We can’t be sure this island is entirely deserted. There could be something else out here.”

“If you wanted to play pretend out here, you should’ve partnered with Troy.” Jeff shot back.

“Well maybe I want to play pretend with _you_.” Abed said, leaning his forehead in close to Jeff’s.

“Fine.” He answered, trying to hold back his smile.

Abed turned and continued on in front of Jeff, carefully stepping around the undergrowth.

“Do you see anywhere we can cross?” Jeff asked as they reached the bank of a shallow creek.

Abed was crouched down in the mud, looking at the water. “In the tv shows they usually filter the water to drink it, but this looks kind of nasty. I’m happy we packed that.”

Jeff kneeled down next to him, watching the water flow over rocks. When he turned back around Abed was looking at him, wide eyed with mud smeared on his thumb. He gives Jeff a small smile, then moves his hand forward to paint lines under his eyes. Jeff closes his eyes while Abed does it, ignoring the fact that this is definitely going to fuck with his skin.

“So who are we in this game?” Jeff asked.

“Hm.” Abed hummed. “I don’t know. Maybe we just washed up on this island together.”

“Can I still kiss you?”

Abed considered this. “Yes.”

Jeff grinned and leaned over to kiss him, then put his own finger into the mud on the bank, giving Abed matching stripes along his cheekbones. He does look straight out of a deserted island show, with the bandana around his head and the mud across his face.

“I think we smudged them.” Abed said, pointing at Jeff, but he doesn’t look any better.

“Doesn’t matter,” Jeff told him, standing up and taking Abed’s hand in his. “We shouldn’t be too far now.”

_-Shirley and Britta-_

“I feel like we’ve been walking forever already.” Britta groaned as she took another step over a root sticking out of the ground. “Maybe there isn’t actually a clearing out here.”

“I’m sure we’ll be there soon.” Shirley said.

Suddenly the air seemed to change around them, like a single step down the half-overgrown trail had taken them from one place to another entirely. Britta whipped her head around to look at Shirley, who seemed unsettled as well. But neither said anything, just shrugged and continued. Shirley found herself checking over her shoulders every few steps. Reminding herself that the noises in the woods and the shadows in the bushes were nothing more than nature.

“Brit-ta?” Shirley asked tentatively. “What time did we get here today?”

“Like, noon I think. Why?”

Shirley stopped and Britta paused along with her, looking up into the sky, where it seemed like somewhere, close enough for them to touch, the sun was beginning to set.

“That’s really weird. I don’t think we learned about anything like that in class. But maybe I skipped that day.” Britta said, looking past tree trunks to catch the orange and red of the sky.

“I didn’t skip any days, and we _definitely_ didn’t learn about the sun not setting at nighttime.”

They kept hiking, their pace a little faster and Britta not straying more than a few inches from Shirley’s side. Finally they spot the small wooden post marking their campsite, just at the edge of a small clearing.

“Thank god.” Britta said as they stepped into it and she grabbed the sign with their names on it, unzipping Shirley’s backpack and putting it in.

They worked as fast as they could on the tent, but it was still nearly dark by the time they were done. Neither of them wanted to go more than a few feet out of the clearing to gather the firewood, rushing back and forth to pile it up and light it. It was dark once the fire was going, and they sat next to each other as close to it as they could get without the embers falling on them, trying to avoid looking at the edge of the trees.

“This is so much scarier than I thought it would be.” Britta admitted quietly.

“Me too.” Shirley said. “I don’t exactly feel like we’re alone.”

Just as she said it, Britta spotted a pair of eyes, glowing white just past the light of the fire. She screamed and hid her face in Shirley’s shoulder as the jumped and grabbed onto Britta.

“Did you see that?” Britta whispered, holding a handful of Shirley’s top.

“I didn’t and I don’t think I want to.” Shirley whispered.

Britta got up first, with Shirley following her, carefully retreating into the tent with the fire still burning outside. She resisted the urge to peek out of the entrance once she closed it, afraid that she’d meet the eyes again. Afraid that they’d be closer this time.

_-Jeff and Abed-_

Their campsite had been set up, mostly by Abed, or Jeff with Abed’s direction. Maybe the tent poles seemed a little wonky, now that Jeff was looking again, but that didn’t matter anyway. He hadn’t paid much attention in the class, knowing he had the rest of the group to help him through and that he was partnered with Abed for the final.

This had been proving to be better than Jeff was expecting even, time alone with Abed, real time, not stolen when the study room is empty. It did feel like the whole world was just the two of them, on a deserted island with no one else in sight. And Jeff liked being alone with Abed, he always had. He felt more like himself alone with Abed than he did just alone, not that he’d ever admit that to him. Now, being alone with Abed meant touching him, and kissing him, and not having to hide the exact intensity of his emotions. He still tried to hide them, but he couldn’t resist, not when Abed was right there, happy to be held and kissed on the forehead with their fingers laced together away from the prying eyes of their friends.

They were supposed to eat some weird army meals out here, but thank god Shirley had pulled up to the Greendale parking lot this morning with sandwiches for all of them. After they’d eaten, and the tent was reassembled by Abed, correctly this time, there wasn’t much else to do. So they were sitting close at the fire’s edge, watching in comfortable silence as the sun went down.

“This is the part where we huddle by the fire for warmth.” Abed said.

“It’s not even that cold out yet.” Jeff said back, turning to him.

“We huddle by the fire for warmth.” Abed repeated. Jeff’s sitting cross-legged in the grass, and Abed crawls into his lap.

Jeff wrapped an arm around him, leaning his head against Abed’s and getting more mud all over his face.

“This is the last chapstick we’ll ever see in our lives.” Abed told him, swiping it over his lips and then turning to kiss Jeff. “But if we start to starve we’ll probably eat it.”

Jeff ran his tongue over his lips. “What flavor is this?”

“Grapefruit. I take what I can find nowadays. Also they didn’t have the one I liked at the store so I’m switching it up.” Abed uncapped the tube again and carefully applied it to Jeff’s lips, narrowing his eyes in focus. When he was done he settled back on Jeff’s shoulder.

“Thanks for letting me use the last chapstick on earth.” Jeff said, leaning forward and kissing Abed’s temple.

“If we have to resort to eating it you can take the first bite.”

“You really are romantic.”

_-Troy and Annie-_

“Alright, seems like this is the creek.” Annie says as they approach the edge.

“So we’re crossing this and going upstream, right?” Troy asked.

“No we’re staying on this side and going downstream.” Annie corrected him.

“That doesn’t sound right either, Annie. I thought you took notes!”

“Yeah, on building animal traps, not the directions to our campsite!”

“Damn it Annie, what else can we do?”

“Well Jeff and Abed were ahead of us, and they just had to keep heading in this direction, maybe we can find them and go from there.”

“Fair enough.” Troy said, finding rocks to cross over the water and continuing on the other side with Annie following his steps.

They kept walking for a while until they spot Jeff and Abed’s tent in the distance and a small fire. Annie thinks she only sees Jeff for a second, judging by the silhouette, but then she realizes Abed is _sitting in Jeff’s lap_ and then he turns around and now they’re _kissing_ , so Annie gasps and hides behind a tree, with Troy taking the one next to her.

“What the hell is happening?” Annie asked, still trying to pick her jaw up off the floor.

“That’s been going on for a little while.” Troy said with a sheepish grin. “They’ve sort of just been waiting for everyone else to notice, I think.”

“Okay well I really was not expecting that.” Annie said back, but she can’t help squealing a little when she sees Abed pull away from kissing Jeff with a little smile on his face. “But they’re sort of cute, damn it.”

“Apparently Jeff is _weird_ with Abed.” Troy told her. “Like really sweet. Abed’s obsessed with it.”

Annie tried not to be jealous of the fact that Abed was telling Troy about all this and not her. But Jeff did seem different, holding Abed’s hand and kissing the side of his head with a toothy grin across his face. She’d get all the details from Abed when they got home.

“I don’t really want to interrupt this.” Annie whispered.

“Me neither.” Troy said. “Let’s keep looking for our campsite.”

_-Jeff and Abed-_

“Usually people tell stories around campfires.” Abed said.

The sky was dark and starry around them, and Jeff and Abed had kept the fire going for a few hours now. They also tried to build a lean-to against one of the trees, even though they already had the tent, because Abed insisted it was essential to the deserted island storyline. This hadn’t worked out nearly as well as they were hoping, so now they were dirtier than ever with a confusing pile of long branches and undergrowth fallen against a nearby tree.

“You’re the storyteller.” Jeff said, laying on his back and looking up through the trees to the black night. Abed laid down next to him, his face close and a hand resting on Jeff’s thigh.

“A scary story?”

“Sure, whatever you want.”

“So say we were stranded on an island. Maybe the only survivors of a shipwreck. And the first few weeks are probably terrifying, and we both almost die a dozen times. Which brings us closer together, plus the whole “Only person on earth” type of deal. But after that there’s a sort of routine to it, right? You’re hoping for rescue, but it feels less likely, and less necessary. You figure out what you have to do to survive, and you just keep doing it. The same days with the same person. Whose to say we don’t spend years out here? Then we do get rescued, cause that’s always how the stories end. That’s my least favorite thing about the genre, actually. They leave out the scariest part. The scary part is when the helicopter’s landing, but the world’s different, and _you’re_ different. And you have to go back to reality. Where other people can see you. I think that part scares you too.”

At this his eyes met Jeff’s, shining in the firelight, and _god_ this was the scariest thing he’d ever heard.

“Because somewhere like this, you don’t have to grow and change. Just coexist. We would never wanna leave.”

The “We” in his last line is deliberate, focused. Makes it clear that it isn’t a character flaw, to want to stay on the island, to be terrified by Abed’s implications.

When Abed was done he looked at Jeff and tilted his head, like he was waiting for notes.

“I think we should talk to the study group.” Jeff said after a few seconds of silence. “When we get off the island.”

Abed gave him a smirk. “You always get my references.”

_-Troy and Annie-_

“I’m pretty sure we passed that weird rock an hour ago, Annie.” Troy said hopelessly.

The sun was setting, and they hadn’t had any luck finding the campsite. Annie had kept her nose in the notebook most of the time, trying to read through her fine print for any kind of useful information. They’d gone back to the creek, then followed it back and forth for a while without any luck.

“Okay well one thing the book _does_ say is not to walk blindly through the woods after dark. So we can just set up camp here, I guess.” Annie said, throwing her gear down on the ground. “I can’t believe fucking wilderness survival is going to ruin my GPA.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Troy promised, finding a flat piece of ground and putting together the tent. “We’ve still got to do the discoveries, right?! We can make those really good.”

“Only discovery I’ve made today was about Jeff and Abed.” Annie muttered as she started to gather the firewood.

“Professor Whitman would probably count that.” Troy answered.

“I know it’s wrong but I kind of wish they’d trusted me enough to say something, you know?”

“Don’t feel bad, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person Abed told, and he said Jeff isn’t exactly ready for the whole group to know. Or for anyone to know.”

Annie nodded. “It _was_ all a little out of character for him.”

“You’re telling me.” Troy chuckled. “I’ve heard some stories I would never believe if it wasn’t Abed telling me.”

Annie didn’t want to pry, but the gossipy part of her was setting off alarm bells anyway. “What kind of stories?”

“I dunno, that Jeff cries at like, every movie. And uh, after sex, which freaked Abed out a lot the first time. That he likes holding Abed’s hand too, and kissing his forehead and calling him pretty and just being all mushy like that.”

She recalled how Jeff had looked when she saw them. Even in the distance you could see the smile on Jeff’s face, and it had been real, not the kind he plasters on to accompany one of his speeches. It was definitely different, that was for sure.

“We can worry about them when we get back.” Annie said, lighting the campfire. Troy finished with the tent and sat next to her as it started to grow.

“This book was a dumb idea.” She muttered, turning it over in her hands. “I always do things like this, and I don’t know why. I guess it’s easier to put a lot of time into this kind of stuff, like it will give me control over my grades, or what happens out here or something.”

“Well maybe today didn’t go as planned, but we’re still here, and we can find our way back tomorrow. Our grade will be okay too, Professor Whitman likes us and I don’t think he grades off much other than that. But I think it’s great that you try to prepare, instead of jumping into everything like the rest of us do. Even if you can’t control it all.”

“Thanks Troy.” Annie grinned, and leaned in to hug him. “You know what? I don’t really need this thing anyways.” She said, tossing it into the fire.

They watched in silence as the pages crinkled and burned, quickly consumed by the fire.

“Awesome.” Troy said as the last pages of colored ink faded into ash. “Wanna tell scary stories?” He asked excitedly.

“Sure, I’ll go first.” Annie volunteered.

“You’re lost in the woods.” Annie started.

“Like we are right now?”

“Worse, because you’ve been out here for two days, and you still have no clue where you are, and every step takes you deeper and deeper into the woods. You can’t tell if you keep passing the same tree over and over, or if they all just look the same. Finally you see someone out here, a big guy in a flannel, but he isn’t facing you. So you call out to him, telling him you’re lost and asking if he knows how to get out of here. But when he turns around, his eyes are black. He starts walking closer to you, and when he grins he has rows and rows of sharp fangs.”

Troy scooches back away from Annie, looking at her with wide eyes.

“Clearly this isn’t right, and you can tell he isn’t quite human. At first you think maybe it’s a hallucination, since you’ve been lost out here for so long that you’re starting to get desperate. Suddenly, instead of walking towards you he’s running, running faster than you’ve ever seen anyone run in your life.”

“Faster than Abed?”

“So much faster than Abed, you can hardly even see him, and you turn and start running too, even though you know it’s hopeless. You don’t make it all that far before he catches you. He tackles you to the ground and all those razor-sharp teeth take a bite out of your neck. And then he keeps going those black eyes looking at your face to make sure you’re still alive until the very last possible moment. So then he tortures you like that for a while, and leaves your body miles out in the woods, where it takes months for them to even find you, and you’re basically just a skeleton.”

“Jeez Annie, that was really intense.” Troy said when she finished the story and turned to him. “I bet Abed’s telling an awesome campfire story right now.”

“Yeah, and I bet Shirley’s doing a bible reading for Britta.” Annie said back.

_-Shirley and Britta-_

“Brit-ta.” Shirley said again, the two of them crammed close in the small tent, shivering either out of cold and terror. “We need to get out of here.”

“I’m too scared to go outside.” Britta said, watching the shadows of swaying trees against the walls. “Maybe we can wait until morning.”

“I don’t think it’s ever going to be morning.” Shirley said. “There’s something evil about this part of the woods.”

“What are you gonna do, exorcise the demon?”

Shirley hit her on the arm. “What is wrong with you? This is life or death.”

“Fine.” Britta sighed. “Should we really try to make a run for it?”

“Let’s do it.” Shirley said. “We can go back to where the bus dropped us off, wait out there till morning.”

Britta saw another shadow, dark and tall and probably not a person, but definitely, definitely not a tree. She tapped Shirley on the shoulder, and she stared at it for a long moment, her jaw dropping. It seemed to be circling the tent.

Just as it was at the side opposite the exit, Shirley whispered. “Now!”

They both scrambled out of the tent and started to run the way they came. Rapid footsteps followed.

_-Jeff and Abed-_

“Abed, it’s cold.” Jeff said pointedly. The space wasn’t really big enough for the two of them, with both their sleeping bags pressed into each other and their pillows placed side by side.  
“I don’t think I’ll fit in your sleeping bag.” Abed answered.

“You need to at least _try_ ,” Jeff insisted. He shook his feet in the sleeping bag, which were poking out of the entrance to the tent. “I’m exposed to the elements. I could _die_.”  
“Fine.” Abed said, wiggling out of his own sleeping bag and unzipping Jeff’s to join him.

Abed struggled to pull the zipper back up, squeezing in even closer to Jeff to get it to work. When he did, Jeff sighed contentedly and pulled Abed to his chest.

“Perfect.” He said, wiping the dried mud still streaked on Abed’s face and letting it crumble between them.

Abed shifted around Jeff’s body, getting on top of him and pressing a kiss to his unshaven face. He still tasted like the chapstick and Jeff responded immediately, a hand on the small of Abed’s back forcing them even closer together as Jeff met his lips. As they were kissing Abed shifted until his legs were wrapped around Jeff’s thigh, rolling his hips roughly against Jeff’s. He was surprised by the intensity of it, the way Abed had to muffle his moaning against Jeff’s shoulder. He didn’t think the day had actually gotten Abed this worked up, which only made it _hotter_ , feeling him hard against his leg and desperate for contact.

“You sorta freaked me out with that other story.” Jeff told him. “Can you tell me a different one?”

“Okay.” Abed grinned, kissing him again. He pressed down against Jeff’s chest, slotting their bodies together even closer.

“So you’re – you’re living in the woods after an apocalypse has destroyed all civilization and decimated the planet.” He grinded against Jeff again.

“I don’t think that’s supposed to be hot.” Jeff chuckled.

“Shut up, I’m getting to it.” Abed muttered, still circling his hips.

“You’ve been out here for months, maybe a year. And you’re so lonely, you don’t know the last time you saw another human face. Until one day, out by the creek, you see someone. You almost can’t believe it, and when he looks up it’s clear he can’t either. He says he’s been on the road for months, thinking he was the last person on earth because he hadn’t seen a single soul. Of course, he goes off with you to your campsite, and- and-“ Abed stutters, stopping to bite at Jeff’s neck.

“I offer to show him the inside of my tent.” Jeff provides, running his hand up Abed’s thigh and grabbing his ass over his sweatpants, which only makes him shudder more against Jeff. “I do have a tent, right?”

“Yeah, and it’s bigger than this one, in a more established base camp, or it would be if you had paid any attention in that wilderness survival class you took at community college before the apocalypse hit. That’s your single biggest regret.”

“I thought you said you were getting to the hot part.”

“I’m _trying_.” Abed insisted. “Well he picks up on where this is going pretty fast. It’s been so long since either of you have seen another human that you need this desperately. Who on earth is there to even notice or care? Not to mention he thinks you’re very attractive, in a rugged, dystopian kind of way. And you can tell he was probably really pretty before the apocalypse.”  
“Conceited much?” Jeff chuckled, and Abed didn’t answer, just pressed down and kissed Jeff.

“You lean in and kiss him, desperate to taste the mouth of another person. He guides you to the floor gets on top of you, smiles and rips off all your clothes as fast as he can.” Abed said, moaning louder than ever before stopping suddenly, pulling his hips off Jeff just an inch.

“Hey buddy, what happens next?” Jeff asked, reaching under Abed’s shirt and resting a hand on his shoulder blades.

“I need to stop.” Abed said, still out of breath. “If I don’t I’m going to—”

“Abed, that would be the hottest thing ever. Please keep going.” Abed looked up at Jeff, his eyes glazed over and all the dirt smeared across his face. “You’d be pretty during the apocalypse, too.” Jeff added.

“Well this isn’t me, it’s some faceless person.” Abed told him.

“I’m pretty sure it’s you.”

“Not important.” Abed answered. “Well he’s kneeling over you, taking you apart piece by piece. You wish he would rush through, because you’ve needed this so badly. He finally presses inside you –”

“We don’t have any lube.” Jeff interrupted.

“Fine.” Abed said, exasperated, his hips circling faster and faster. “He puts his fingers in your mouth, and makes you spit all over them even though they’re probably really dirty, and uses _that_ as lube. And then he’s fucking you –”

Abed gave up in favor of crashing his face into Jeff’s, open-mouthed and practically drooling. Whimpers escaping the back of his throat as his hips rocked against Jeff. He’d spent the whole time wanting to focus on _Abed_ , how uninhibited and needy he was, the hot breath on his skin. That he wanted Jeff so badly it broke him. After doing his best to resist the temptation Jeff finally reaches into his pants and wraps a hand around his dick, pumping his hand to the rhythm of Abed’s hips. He’s still grinding against Jeff, more desperate than ever, the story forgotten for the whining sounds he’s making into Jeff’s neck and the tent rustling around them. He rides his orgasm out, shaking on top of Jeff’s chest and thrusting unevenly a few more times. Jeff only speeds up his pace though it, coming undone himself as Abed starts to lazily suck at his jawline.

“How’s the story end?” Jeff asked when he came back to reality with Abed still limp on top of him.

“You fall in love, and navigate the wasteland together. There are never any more humans, at least not that you meet, but it’s okay because you have each other.” Abed said.

“That was good. I like the part where I spit on his fingers the best.”

“You’re the worst.” Abed said. “That whole thing was humiliating.” He sighed, moving off Jeff as much as he could within the confines of the sleeping bag and trying to hide his face against Jeff’s shoulder.

“Humiliating?”

“I kind of lost myself there. And got really desperate.”

“Abed, I have actually gotten on my knees and _begged_ you to fuck me. Like you watching, straight-faced, and I probably cried.”

“You did.” Abed confirmed.

“Good to know. Either way, that was amazing. It’s not always very clear that you enjoy having sex with me.”

“I always do, but I don’t exactly enjoy being vulnerable like that. Not… afterwards, anyway. Also this is disgusting.”

“Well I appreciated it.” Jeff said, pulling the bandana off of Abed’s forehead to run a hand through his hair. “And we can clean up tomorrow.”

Abed’s fist was balled up in Jeff’s shirt, and he talked into Jeff again. “Just so you know Jeff, I really like whatever we’ve been doing. I really like _you_. I’m sorry that I don’t always know how to show it.”

After a second of listening to Jeff’s heart pound without a response, Abed pulled his face into view. Jeff was blushing under his dirty cheeks, the color only redder in the cold air. When Abed’s eyes met Jeff’s a comforting smile spread across his face.

“You show it in your own deserted island kinda way, and it’s the best.” Jeff told him. “And I’m sorry I didn’t want to tell everyone before. The idea is just scarier than any horror story you could ever tell me.”

“That’s okay.” Abed said back. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here, unless you lose me to the elements.”

Jeff laughed. “I think I am ready now. Also, you never said what kind of apocalypse that was.” Jeff told him. “Or where the mystery guy came from.”

“Do you want his backstory?” Abed asked.

“Please.” Jeff yawned.

“Well it all starts in the distant year of 2020…”

_-Shirley and Britta-_

“Fuck fuck fuck, Shirley it’s behind us!” Britta panted as they kept running.

She didn’t dare to stop, or to look behind them, but she knew it was there, could hear it’s feet and some sort of snarling sound that made her sick to her stomach.  
They’d made it a ways from the campsite, where everything but Shirley’s purse and Britta’s backpack had been ditched. Maybe Britta was running for her life, but she couldn’t just leave her weed like that, and she was pretty sure everything Shirley owned was in that purse.

Shirley stumbled on a tree root, and Britta stopped to help her up. As she fell, Shirley made the mistake of looking behind them. It had a big head, red with white eyes glowing bright against an otherwise featureless face. It was tall, with a hunched back and thin, long limbs. Each hand was finished with long black claws.

“Come on, Shirley, we’ve gotta run.” Britta pleaded, trying to help her up, but Shirley couldn’t take her eyes off the monster.

Britta turned to follow her gaze and gasped, nearly falling to the floor next to Shirley. She was pretty sure this isn’t what Abed was imagining when he said that thing about the Berry Man, because this seemed so much scarier than anything Abed could think up.

They both got back on their feet and it was still running, but they were both glued to the ground in fear, having realized they wouldn’t be able to outrun it now. As it reached them they were both screaming, and Britta was nearly ready to accept her fate.

Suddenly it was right in front of them, claws clicking against each other and growling sounds coming from a nonexistent mouth. With a swing of her arm, Shirley wacked the thing in the head with her purse. It stumbled and fell off the trail.

“Holy shit Shirley!” Britta yelled, then they both turned on their heels and kept going before it could stand back up.

Eventually, just as it seemed like they couldn’t run anymore, they got back to that same spot, the one that had given them the bad feeling in the first place. As soon as they did they both stopped, out of breath and still shaking. They looked up to see it wasn’t nearly as dark as it had been a second before, and that the sun was starting to come up.

“What the hell was that?” Britta finally asked, as they started to walk, still checking over their shoulders with every other step.

“I don’t know.” Shirley answered. “All I know is I am never going camping again.”

“Me neither.” Britta agreed.

They finally reached the place where the bus had dropped them off, and collapsed against a tree next to each other.

_-Troy and Annie-_

The next morning, Annie woke up first, shaking Troy by the shoulders in the sleeping bag next to her.

“We need to pack up and get back to the meeting spot.” Annie told him.

Troy slowly blinked his eyes open. “That was the worst sleep I’ve ever gotten in my life. This ground is so hard.”

“We can sleep when we get back to Greendale.” Annie said, rolling up the sleeping bag. For now, we need to figure out how to fix our grade.”

They packed up everything from the campsite onto their backs and took the trail back towards their meeting place.

“Well you made some discoveries, right?” Troy offered up.

“  
"Are we sure the thing with Jeff and Abed counts?”

“I can’t see why he wouldn’t take it.” Troy said.

“I guess I discovered that maybe I can’t plan for everything. From you.”

Troy grinned. “That’s a good one, he’ll love that.”

“And that being lost in the woods is terrifying.” Annie finished.

“That’s a pretty good three.” Troy said, high fiving her just as they reached the meeting place, where their friends were already gathered.

_-The Study Group-_

“Hey guys.” Abed woke Britta up, nudging her with his foot where she was still slumped against a tree. Jeff leaned over and tapped Shirley on the shoulder.

“Thank the lord, Britta we’re alive!” Shirley yelled when she opened her eyes and realized where they were, turning to hug Britta.

Britta got up to hug Abed, who gently tapped against her back. “I’m so happy you guys are okay! Shirley and I were so scared we didn’t even think about the rest of you.”

“Okay...” Abed said, sounding unsure as he pulled away.

“Hey guys!” Annie greeted as her and Troy joined the group.

“Did you have fun?” Abed asked, going over to Troy to do their handshake.

“Wait a second.” Shirley said before Troy could answer. “Did the rest of you not see that… thing out there?”

“What thing? Annie and I didn’t see anything. Or any of you doing anything.” Troy answered quickly. Annie put her head in her hands.

“We didn’t see anything weird.” Abed said. “We had a lot of fun.”

“FUN?!” Britta screamed, clawing at the sticks in her hair. “Shirley and I were fighting for our fucking LIVES out there, and you guys were having _fun?!_ ”

“Well _I_ didn’t have that much fun. We got lost and Annie scared me with her story!”

“Abed and I had a lot of fun.” Jeff said with a dumb grin spreading across his face.

“I’m happy you boys got to be in love while I beat the Berry Man with my purse.” Shirley shot back.

“Wait, Shirley, you knew too?!” Annie gasped.

“I’ve been seeing it all over Jeff’s face for weeks now.” Shirley said. “He can’t hide anything from me.”

“Britta?” Annie asked.

“I mean I kind of realized when Abed asked me whether I’d consider switching seats with Jeff.” Britta shrugged.

“I can’t believe I’m the only one that didn’t know.” Annie grumbled.

“Damn.” Jeff said, turning to Abed. “I really thought we were being sly.”

“Apparently not. Doesn’t matter.” Abed said. “We need to get back out here with some cameras. This could be my Blair Witch Project. My Buzzfeed Unsolved, if it’s just Troy and I.”

“Abed, we are _never_ coming back here.” Britta said firmly. “I can’t believe none of you are taking this seriously!”

Shirley nodded in agreement.

_-End Tag: Troy, Abed, and Jeff-_

“Abed, I’m really starting to regret this.” Troy muttered, but Abed ignored him, swinging the camcorder around to catch the way the sky was darkening far too rapidly around them.

“This is gonna be great.” Abed told him. “I’ve always wanted to catch a cryptid on film.”

Something rustled off to their right, and they all turned.

“What the hell was that?” Jeff asked, voice shaking as he pointed towards a tree off the trail.

They all turned to it, and a hand with long claws wrapped around the side of the trunk.

“Fuck this.” Abed said, slowly backing away. “Let’s run.”

They turned and sprinted in the other direction.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading!! as always im also jabedalien on tumblr :)


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